About Ariella Talix:
I've chosen to write under a pseudonym in order to protect the dignity of those whom I love. Ariella Talix evolved as my alter-ego when I became inspired to write novels that are erotic in nature. It's great fun to write the books, though I sometimes feel a little bit like the Great Oz hiding behind a curtain.

I am a regular wife and mother who lives in the Midwest. Many of my characters also choose the Midwestern lifestyle over a more exotic or sophisticated locale. I haven't always lived here, having grown up in southern California and living for a while in Europe. But I love it here.

My earliest goal in life was to become a writer, but I was sidetracked in college when I decided I didn't like the courses that were offered, so I became an artist instead- my other great love. For many years I have pursued that career in various ways. Again, I have used that experience in my books because it's fun (and smart) to write about what you know. Artists of all sorts show up in the books. They make for wonderfully colorful people!

What inspires you to write?
I've always loved a good romance story. In the past several years, the trend has shifted to some pretty hot material, and I thought reading it was a lot of fun. Then one night, I had an epiphany that set in motion my own debut novel, Make Believe. The plot changed around a bit from that first brainstorm, but the backbone was there. I just sat down and started writing and writing.

For anyone who's read Make Believe, the two scenes that smacked me in the head and told me to write the book were the scene in the bar and the wedding scene. From those two ideas, I created the rest of the book. The books after that have been a sequel and a spin-off with more coming.

I also love to include pets in the books, so animals are important characters in each story.

Tell us about your writing process.
I am definitely a "pantser" when I write. I may mull things over in my head a lot, but when I sit down at the computer, it's almost like taking dictation. The words sometimes almost surprise me. The most fun of all to me is writing a conversation. It's important to make the dialogue fit the characters, and they are such real people in my head, I can hear them talking. (I hope that doesn't sound too weird!)

I have had to learn, however, that even though something may be well written, it doesn't always advance the plot or belong in the book. So… poof! Entire pages disappear into nothing, and I rewrite a better scene. It stings a tiny bit, but it's worth it, in the long run, to be realistic that not all words belong just because I've written them.

I've been known to set down an outline only when I need to figure out a timeline and people's ages. The rest of the time, I can't be bothered. At first, I'd jot down ideas in a small file, but I'd forget to look at it for ages, and when I'd go back finally and read them, the book had gone in a completely different direction anyway. So now that just seems like extra work.

I tend to write all over the house- usually with the "help" of a dog at my side.

How do you develop your characters?
I don't really know at first except in the vaguest of terms. I like to develop a relationship with the characters the same way a reader would as the story advances. The exception to this would probably be David Drummond in the second book, The Designer. His story just grabbed my heart from the get-go as I imagined him learning about his true background and finally achieving acceptance for his incredible talents.

My characters are definitely noisy in my head when they are helping me out.

April Barnes was a simple girl with a simple life. All she wanted was to graduate and help the world. Everything changes when her only friend Vanessa Lewis talks her into covering for her at a catering job. The minute April walked in the door, her curiosity gets the best of her and that curiosity introduced her to a world that would soon be a part of her.

The minute he laid eyes on her, there was only one thing that Dominic Prescott wanted and that was April Barnes. Hidden behind many secrets, the opportunity to get closer to her presented itself when he volunteered to teach an economics class that she was a student of.
Introducing her to his world wasn’t part of his plan. All it took was one taste and she would be forever his, or so he thought until the truth he had kept hidden away is revealed putting them both in danger.
Will she be able to accept his world or will she walk away and leave the only man she ever loved behind…

Wyoming sheriff Zac McHenry is fit to be tied. A new “working girl” just showed up at the local truck stop, ruining his stakeout. There’s been an influx of transients passing through the county lately. Bringing an epidemic of drugs, crime, and vice with them. The last thing he wants is another hooker setting up shop in town. He’s determined to send her packing. He’s 6′ 4″ and she’s a little bit of a thing. How hard could it be? But getting rid of her isn’t as easy as he thought. When he barges into her motel room, she thinks he’s an attacker and wallops him with her purse. He arrests her for assaulting an officer and hauls her off to jail.
Zac soon realizes things aren’t what they seem. Ali is no hooker…she’s actually a youth librarian from upstate New York. Much to Zac’s dismay, she’s also well connected. She’s friends with several state and federal judges who intercede on her behalf. He’s forced to let her go. Thinking she’ll leave town as soon as she’s released, he checks her out of her cheap motel room. But she has no intention of leaving. Ali’s staking out the truck stop too. Looking for the man who picked up a 13-year-old runaway named Peeky, there a week ago. The girl attended a teen drop-in program at Ali’s library and she’s not leaving until she finds her. There’s a rodeo in town and her room’s already been rented out. In fact, there are no rooms to be found anywhere in the area for the next several days. Ali’s temporarily homeless and its all Zac’s fault! There’s only one thing to do…she’ll just have to move in with the sheriff until she can find another place to stay. Zac thinks his houseguest is a foul-mouthed, ill-tempered hellion. She thinks he’s an interfering, arrogant bully. But when they work together to investigate a case of kidnapping, human trafficking, and murder…sparks begin to fly. Is this any way to start a romance?

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
The idea for Little Girl Lost came from a Dateline program I saw on the Investigation Discovery channel about 2 young cousins that had been kidnapped from Ohio and transported to truckstops out of state to be trafficked. I did a lot of research on the topic and decided it would make a good backdrop for a romantic suspense novel.

Clarissa Moone is a young, classy, impoverished art history graduate. Her life transforms when she lands a job working for the enigmatic billionaire, Aidan Thornhill. As the contract stipulates that she reside at his lavish Malibu estate, Clarissa suddenly finds herself surrounded by jaw-dropping art and opulence. A significant step up from the run-down apartment she shares with her best friend.
Aidan Thornhill is a self-made billionaire whose earlier start in life was riddled with poverty and a dysfunctional upbringing. Running away from scandal, he joins the army and works his way up to the Special Forces. Accompanied by haunting memories, Thornhill re-enters civilian life with a million dollars gifted to him by a dying buddy. He travels to Europe where he develops a passion for art. And after many astute investments, he becomes one of LA’s wealthiest bachelors. Voluptuous, intelligent and sensitive, Clarissa Moone’s beauty makes Aidan gasp for air. But with a reputation that is as much invented as true, he has to convince Clarissa that he is not a heart-breaker. Aidan Thornhill’s movie-star looks, love of art and passionate support for the downtrodden, soon wins Clarissa’s heart, soul, and innocence.
After living a life devoted to intellectual pursuits and art, being new to love, she succumbs to her smoldering hot boss, who stops at nothing to pleasure her, sending Clarissa off into toe-curling ecstasy.
Behind the scenes, however, the claws are out. Determined to stir trouble, three characters, one of whom, a spoilt heiress, do everything to reap revenge.
With mutual burning passion impossible to extinguish, the couple’s chemistry is so potent that their souls implode when Thornhill’s mysterious past threatens to drive a wedge between them. The former soldier goes into battle determined to have Clarissa even if it means losing everything.

I shamed my name. I am a whore. I am a disgrace. I’m all the things my mother made me. I wear my badge with pride because I know the truth, and only those worth a damn see me for who I am, not the label I choose to hide behind.
I am a Domme. I would still rather be a whore than a hypocrite like my mother, or a victim like the daughter she raised me to be.

As Mistress Selina, I can bring a grown man to his knees without so much as a crack of my handmade whip. I love the power and control—what’s not to love? I must be mad to even consider Dominant sex club owner and King of Kink Jason Sinclair’s proposition.
Two Doms don’t make a right.

Self-preservation has kept me at a safe distance from the one man who could change all that. The only man who wields power like a sensual sword and keeps me balanced on that knife’s edge. My choice is simple: He wants me to switch for him. But if I do, will I bleed or will I fall?

When the pubescent Jesus Christ had wet dreams, did He spill The Divine Seed upon the ground? Would an omniscient and omnipotent lover be too much for a mere mortal to handle?

These are the questions that Jesus Christ: Porn Star seeks to answer. This satirical erotic novel tells the story of life as the Messiah in a modern, Kardashianized society, where celebrities are gods and Christ must resort to pornography to get the attention of his disciples.

Jealous and angry, her relationship with Connor in tatters, Sylvie decides to escape her penthouse prison. She flees to an isolated cottage in the Catskill Mountains where she hopes to lick her wounds and mend her broken heart. Sylvie has a new job and a new life, far from the hustle and bustle of the city, far from Connor Hudson’s rules and control. She may have escaped her lover, but not the killer. He knows where she is…and he’s coming to claim her!

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
This is the 3rd book in the In His Keeping series. I simply wanted to continue the story begun in books 1 and 2.. The thing that inspired the 1st book was happening on the Westport, NY railroad station on the banks of Lake Champlain in the Adirondack Mts. while my husband and I were out taking a ride. It’s very quaint and off the beaten track. It gave me an idea for the story. A young woman, down on her luck, who’s so desperate that she takes a train up from the city to work for a man she’s never met and live with him in his remote mountain mansion. That was the beginning of the series.

Exiled to a luxurious penthouse fortress on Park Ave. and trailed by security teams wherever she goes, Sylvie Jenkins feels like a virtual prisoner.

She made the mistake of falling in love with her boss, reclusive bestselling author and billionaire entrepreneur, Connor Hudson. He’s a strict, demanding Dom, who imposes rules and metes out punishment. He wants her total submission, but she’s not inclined to give it. They’d been living together in his rustic mountain mansion until the day police arrived and informed Connor he was the prime suspect in a series of grisly murders. People who loved him had a habit of turning up dead!

Without a word of explanation, Connor sends Sylvie away, refusing to take her calls or answer texts or emails. He tries to stay away from Sylvie, but he can’t. They continue to see each other in secret. Their meetings are filled with painful discipline, followed by the most exquisite pleasure.

Sylvie becomes jealous when Connor squires other women to society events. He tells her it’s to throw the “real” killer off the track. But Sylvie has her doubts.
Realizing she knows almost nothing about Connor’s background, she decides to search the apartment for clues to his past. She discovers the door to a secret room. What she finds there frightens her. Sylvie had always known Connor had a dark, almost sinister side, but she hadn’t thought him dangerous or cruel. Now she wondered. She kept telling herself Connor wasn’t a murderer. But the question remained, if he wasn’t…who was?

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
This is the 2nd book in the the In His Keeping series. So the first book inspired the second one. I wanted to continue on with the story. The thing that inspired the 1st book was happening on the Westport, NY railroad station on the banks of Lake Champlain in the Adirondack Mts. while my husband and I were out taking a ride. It’s very quaint and off the beaten track. It gave me an idea for the story. A young woman, down on her luck, who’s so desperate that she takes a train up from the city to work for a man she’s never met and live with him in his remote mountain mansion. That was the beginning of the series.